It is often said that he abandoned Sita because for his Rajdharam was above himself.
Had he not been a king, he wouldn’t have left her.
But since he was a king, he had the responsibility and accountability to keep the social structure of society intact.
And how the social structure can be impacted if he would have decided not to left her?
I am willing to listen to different views. But here ,I am putting my views forward.
a. As a king, he was likely to be followed by his junta suo motto without even getting into details of what is right and what is not right.
b. For a common junta in his kingdom, they didn’t know Sita personally.
c. They also didn’t know the fact that it was not Sita herself but her shadow which was kidnapped and stayed with Ravan and not the body of Sita. Infact, as per a story, the body of Sita was with Agnidev.
d. There was no hearing ( court) for the personal problems of a king. A common junta could go to kindly that time but a king was a king and there was no one to whom he could approach other than his Guru Vashisht.
e . Guru Vashisht advised him to take this decision on his own and also reminded him that Raj Dharam is above his personal Dharam.
f. He approached Sita also and she understood the problem of Ram as a King and she herself offered to go. For her, her love and dedication towards Ram was the reason that she didn’t want someone to raise a finger on Ram even if she has to suffer.
g. Ram didn’t know that Sita was pregnant ( Had he decided to change his decision if he knew it ? Not likely, it could be topic of another debate. But it is a fact worth mentioning here.
h. There was a belief in society that a ( married) lady should only live with her husband. Else her character is not reliable. In case of Sita this was not true due to the fact that her body was with Agnidev, but junta didn’t know that.
With these known facts to him comes the decision making.
If he would have chosen to keep Sita, given the limited facts and knowledge his junta had, junta would have chosen to follow him in different situations ( without evaluating why he did so) and the basic belief about character will start to loose it’s significance. It will create a state of society getting disintegrated and societal structure will go for a toss.
As a king, this would be the last thing he would want even if his personal sweetheart suffers because of this action.
He considered the fact that Rajdharam is above his personal being ( also sort of obeyed the advice given by his Guru. He is often revered as Maryada Purushottam because this is how he created examples for other kings and men what conduct should be followed). When he stated the situation with Sita, she readily agreed to sacrifice because of her loyalty and Love to Ram. She could not see him getting defamed.
They both agreed mutually to sacrifice for a cause.
They knew their transcendental existence is beyond their togetherness in this world.
Sita was also part of this decision.
Someone may ask, why she decided to call her mother earth to take her back when Ram and entire junta called her back. Why she didn’t do it immediately when Laxman left her in jungle.
I can think of two reasons:
- She also needed to give birth to her babies and hence she could not have done that crime to kill them along with her. She rather put a challenge onto her to make them as good, in all aspects as Ram.
- She needed to prove herself to the world that she was still as pious as River Ganga. Her sons only could help her do that.
